Every journey starts with a single step.
My journey started "officially" in March 2006. I started this blog six years into my journey, I often find myself amazed at how this disease taught me a lot....about me. I find the hot air balloons a perfect representation of my journey, with all it's ups and downs....I still soar.

Monday, September 01, 2008

Complimentary Treatments for MS

Kim asked me to write about the treatment she is going to try next week, as it is the same treatment that I am using to treat my MS. Although I have had MS since I was about 27, I was only diagnosed in 2003, after a major relapse sent me to the hospital with numbness on my right side, double vision, spasticity and some trouble putting my thoughts into words. After several doctors ran through a list of possible causes, I underwent a brain biopsy to determine if the lesions on my brain were MS or an inoperable brain tumor. Since the lesions were atypical of MS lesions, the only way to know for sure was to do the brain biopsy. Lucky for me I did not have brain tumors. After a couple of years on what we then called the ABC drugs, I decided that I felt better being off the drugs. Since my neurological exams were normal, my neurologist was comfortable with my decision to stay off the drugs. From the time I was initially diagnosed in February of 2003 I have only had two relapses…one in November of 2007; double vision for which I took Prednisone, and the current one right now, which is total numbness on my left side which I am treating with acupuncture and the use of the Dynatron STS machine, the one Kim will be using next week.

The machine as I call it was invented and patented by a podiatrist named Dr. Donald A Rhodes in Corpus Christi, Texas. It is being used to treat diseases that conventional medicine has not had any success in treating. I was skeptical when I first started to talk to Dr. Rhodes about the treatment, as I was in Corpus Christi not for myself, but for my daughter who was in chronic pain from reflex sympathetic dystrophy. Anyway, I was talking with Dr. Rhodes about MS and said that I didn’t think the machine would help me because the myelin sheath cannot regenerate itself; and he said why not? He said that the myelin sheath is very sensitive to oxygen deprivation and that if we could improve my circulation and get my body to make the neuropeptides (nerve chemicals) that it was missing that the myelin sheath could very well repair itself. Let me just say that Dr. Rhodes is not looking to cure everyone, if that is a byproduct of the treatment, that is great, but really what he is trying to do is just improve the quality of a person’s life. Let me stop here and say that his machine is licensed, patented and approved by the FDA for the treatment of chronic pain, neuropathies and circulation. Once a product or treatment is approved by the FDA, it is no longer considered experimental.

So after some testing, I started treatment by putting electrodes on my hands and feet based on the protocols that were right for me and started running the machine twice a day everyday since mid January of this year. I have had several positive results. One is that I no longer have train wreck fatigue. This is the greatest thing that ever happened to me. I am able to go for an hour long walk and still go to work and have a full day. The other bonus is that I am off all of my blood pressure medicine (the machine naturally lowers a persons’ blood pressure) and I am off all of my allergy meds as well.

This has been an unexpected yet delightful change in my life. I feel like a “normal person” again. While I still live with MS and always will, I am drug free, and feeling healthy and most importantly living a full life. This method of treatment (and I am only the 4th MS patient that Dr. Rhodes has treated) is non invasive and painless, imagine that!

I am attaching to the bottom of this, an article that Dr. Rhodes wrote about this treatment. It will give you a general idea of what happens when the machine is used.

Kim- I wish you the best of luck next week and will be praying for positive results for you.

About 14 years ago I began developing a treatment system for previously untreatable diseases. This started as a treatment for a devastating nerve disease which was known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, at that time. Since then, this disease has been renamed several times but still defies effective treatment by most physicians. However, we have had excellent results utilizing my methodology. The treatment that I invented, developed, and patented is a form of electrical stimulation. In 2000, this methodology was licensed to Dynatronics, Inc. of Salt Lake City Utah. Upon my instructions a modality was created and named the Sympathetic Therapy System (STS) and was FDA approved to treat chronic pain and increase circulation. The treatment is designed to create neuropeptides (nerve chemicals), which control our bodily functions. By creating these neuropeptides, it is possible to increase circulation to various portions of the body and reverse the damage caused by insufficient circulation. The Dynatronics license allows Dynatronics the right of first refusal of subsequent patents. However, due to financial considerations, they have chosen not to pursue any of my subsequent patents. These patents markedly improve the effectiveness of the treatment utilizing magnetic electrodes and allow the treatment of non-painful diseases but are only available in our clinic.

This treatment was found to be effective for alleviating the pain caused by a wide variety of painful diseases including all types of arthritis and neuropathies. In 2001, a clinical study of peripheral neuropathies showed that not only was this treatment effective in decreasing neuropathic pain but that this treatment was able to improve nerve conduction as verified by nerve conduction velocity studies performed by a board certified neurologist. The results of this study were published in the Journal of the American Academy of Pain Management

Shortly thereafter, a local physician with diabetic neuropathies became a patient of mine. As she received treatment for the neuropathies, not only did the pain in her feet disappear but also her blood sugars began decreasing requiring her to decrease her daily insulin. Eventually, she was able to reduce her insulin usage by 80%. A small clinical study was then performed involving participants with diabetes type 2 in conjunction with a number of other physicians in the Corpus Christi area. This study showed that virtually every subjective and objective measurement improved including nerve conduction, bone density, kidney function, and Loss of Protective Sensation. These results were published in the American Diabetes Association publication “Diabetes Care” and in the publication of the Diabetes Technology Association. In addition, the results were presented to the national clinical meeting of the Diabetes Technology in Atlanta, Georgia.

The newest and most exciting improvement is the linking of autonomic nervous system data from the individual patients to the electrical stimulation treatment. This allows the treatment to modulate to the needs of the patient. This is the first time that a physical therapy treatment modulates to the patient rather than the patient modulating to the treatment. This newest incantation of the treatment allowed improvement in patients with Parkinson’s Disease.

Based upon this improvement, a small pilot study of this newest modification of my treatment is currently ongoing in conjunction with Rob Izor, M.D., a neurologist specializing in movement disorder diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease. At the end of the first month, all of the patients in the study had a 25 to 50 percent improvement in their Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale. At the end of the second month, all of the participants were continuing to improve. This was the subject of several newscasts and will be available in a DVD format, in the near future. This study will continue for a total of six months.

Currently, this treatment is set and altered based upon temperature sensor results with computer analysis. While this is very effective, it requires that the patients be in Corpus Christi, Texas for continual resetting of the treatments. At this time, we are designing a new physical therapy modality, which will be able to reset itself automatically several times per week. This will allow the treatment to continually change in response to an ever-changing patient. This new unit is being designed to allow computer changes so that some of the units can become a “sham units” for double blind clinical studies. This “artificial intelligent” unit will allow other medical practitioners to achieve the excellent results that I have been able to experience with diseases such as CRPS, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, chronic back pain, diabetes, Parkinson’s Disease, and Autism. All of these diseases are controlled by the same group of neuropeptides, which decrease circulation.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at our clinic (361) 992-9432.